Canvas Technology, the Boulder developer behind the robotic industrial cart, said Tuesday it raised $15 million from investors that will be used to expand production and continue development of its autonomous technology.

“Our goal is to power many different autonomous products, not just our own,” said Sandra McQueen, the company’s co-founder and vice president of marketing. “That includes ongoing innovation of our 3-D cameras as well as the software that powers mapping and autonomous navigation.”

McQueen co-founded the company with husband and CEO Jonathan, who comes from a manufacturing background and knew there had to be a faster way to move parts and materials in a large warehouse. Other co-founders came from the University of Colorado, where they were working on autonomous technology.

Canvas’ first product, unveiled in August, looks like an industrial cart used in warehouses. Equipped with sensors and cameras, the cart maps out a room and can roll from point A to point B on its own. It’s smart enough to maneuver around objects in its path. Canvas’ system uses computer vision to continuously map the environment so the cart could take different routes to the end point.

The $15 million comes from a Series A round led by Playground Global, a Palo Alto, Calif., venture firm co-founded by Andy Rubin. Rubin also is behind Android, which Google acquired in last decade for its smartphone operating system.

“The Canvas team has created a powerful vertically integrated robot operating system, with perception and speed that rivals anything we’ve seen. We think it will not only bring enormous gains to the manufacturing and logistics sectors but to many other industries that need a turnkey autonomous technology solution,” Rubin said in a statement.

Previous ventures that were also part of the round included Xplorer Capital, AME Cloud Ventures and Morado Ventures.

Canvas’ technology is being used nationwide “with many more customers waiting,” McQueen said. Customers have not been named but over the summer, Centennial-based Cochlear Americas was testing out the robot to help its e-commerce workers pack and ship products and gave a positive review.

“We’ve definitely seen a difference in our world,” Nils Alstad, Cochlear’s director of supply chain, said at the time, pointing to a double-digit increase in how many orders employees were able to ship per person per day.

The company currently employs 30 people and has 10 job openings posted on its website. It builds the cart in a facility in Boulder.

​Tamara Chuang covers personal technology and local tech news for The Denver Post. She loves figuring out how things work and explaining them either through words, graphics or video. Find out how to contact her at dpo.st/tamara

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